How to Save Forms and Continue Later

Last Update: March 28, 2016

Got Lots of Form Pages? Make JotForm Save Submissions on Each Page. Let's say that you have a survey which includes over 10 pages. Your user starts to fill out your forms but suddenly something happens, maybe the computer shuts down or the user has an urgent call and closes your form without submitting it. It is possible to prevent this, JotForm has an amazing feature that saves the forms for each unique user and for each page the form is filled. That way your users will be able to continue to fill out your forms whenever they are available. But, the tricky part is you have to keep a Session ID.

Note: This method requires two forms and a Page Break in order for it to work, and as a matter of fact our session system will not be able to handle a large amount of records in drop down menus. So please be aware of it, before to implement this method.

We will need to have two forms:

Form 1 : The first form where the user will need to fill out the name and email field. The session URL will be created here and we will use the email field as the session ID.

Form 2 (Main Form): This is the main form where all the necessary and important fields we need to collect. The main form needs to have page break, please also note that the progress on each page will only be saved when the "Next" and "Back" button is clicked.

1. Create a form to get name and e-mail. On the title, explain the user why this is necessary. This will be referred as the first form from now on. Form 1 Example:

2. Create another form that they will be redirected to. This will be referred as the main form from now on. Form 2 Example:

** If you want to change the back and next button text, just click on each option from the toolbar and change it from there. **** You can also change the visibility of each button. This function is useful for skip-to page conditional logic.**** You can also choose from a variety of our page break buttons**

3. When main form is finished click "Preview" and then click "Open in new tab" button. On the new tab, copy the Form URL.

Here's the preview window where you can copy the form URL:

5. Close the tab and go to "My Forms" menu and click "Edit" on "Form 1" you created.

6. On Form 1 go to "Emails".

Click "Create New Email" button.

7. Select the "Autoresponder Email".

8. Enter your name and e-mail. "Recipient E-mail" field should be related with the E-mail form on your form. So it should be an E-mail by default. If it is not selected please select the appropriate e-mail field found in your form. After completing all the necessary fields here, click "Edit Email".

9. You will then be navigated to the email wizard where you can edit the email body. Erase all the data in the text area and write something meaningful for the user. Because this will be sent to his/her email.

10. Paste Form 2's URL here (the one your copied earlier), and at the end of the URL add a question mark "?", after the question mark write "session", next to it add the equals "=" sign and click E-mail on the form fields. So far your URL should look like this:

Example:

https://form.jotform.com/60874096771971?session={email}

Below is a screenshot showing how I composed my autoresponders message:

After you have written "?session=" select E-mail from the right corner of the page which is in “Form Fields”. You can also hyperlink it using the formatting toolbar above, highlight or select the custom form session URL, then click the insert link button.

11. Click OK and save the changes.

We've covered the part where our main form will be emailed to our users when they submit their names and e-mail addresses. They will be able to complete their forms whenever they want from their e-mails. However, we also need to do a redirect page after they have submitted the first form.

12. In your Form 1, click "Thank You" button in the form builder.

Here you can edit the message or simple redirect the user to another page URL. I'll select "Edit Text".

You will then be navigated to this part where you can simply edit the thank you message of your form. In my case, I will compose the same message I have in the autoresponder and tell the user to use the session link to continue to the main form.

NUMBER ONE: Bug? I think I might have found a bug with the Saving Form function you outlined above, and might I add the explanation was easy to follow.

Let me first explain how I understand this feature. Each time the the 'back' or 'Save & Go to Next Page' buttons are pressed, the form is saved? Correct?

Now, here's the problem I'm seeing, the File Upload function looks to be working but doesn't work 100% of the time and the following is when it doesn't work.

Usually, a file is something that is slotted last on a form, so right after you upload it, you click the Submit button. However, with this Save Form option you've laid out, the file isn't sent.

Let me better explain. Let's say I upload a file and then push either the 'back' or 'Save and Go to Next Page' button.

Then, I close out the window. By pushing one of these two buttons, I've saved everything I've entered into the form, and from the looks of it, it LOOKS like I've saved the uploaded document as well.

Okay, so I go over to my email address and retrieve the URL of the form and open it back up. Go to the page that contains the uploaded document, and the link to the document is still there, too, or a small thumbnail if you have chosen to upload an image.

However, when you hit the Submit button, the document isn't sent along with the form, only the text is sent.

Bug???

NUMBER TWO: While this Save Form feature is cool for people submitting forms, the people receiving these forms receive two emails: 1.) When the submitter completes the first page of the form, and 2.)When the submitter actually send you the completed form.

Is it possible to not receive the first notification?

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Here's a link to my form. It's bare bones but it's set up just like you explained above: http://www.jotform.com/form/12491925242 (if you do check out my form, please note that I haven't redirected the Thank You page to any URL yet.)

1. Why not redirect directly to main form (with session ID) after submission of first form?2. How do I know the name, and e-mail of the submitters of the main form without asking them for that information again? Doesn't look like it's possible, but if session id was saved to the response it would be easy enough. Another way to make it work could be to trigger sending of e-mail trough button (next).

Instead of this solution I think I'm going for:one form, with;1. a submit button named something like "send e-mail with edit submission link" (my form is in Norwegian) and explaining text, after questions from first form. Which will take the respondent to:2. a thank you page with link to edit submission (see http://www.jotform.com/help/96-How-to-Make-a-Clickable-Edit-Link), and3. send thank you e-mail with edit link.

The challenge is to explain things so that the repspondent does not get confused when seeing the thank you page twice, and with an edit link. Luckily the thank you e-mail seems to be only sent once.

Oups, my above "solution" isn't solving much since it does not save to the original submission when turning pages, so you still need the session id-link. I guess the thank you e-mail could provide both, though....

My main form: http://www.jotform.com/form/20225407335 located here: http://mservicegroup.com/app works flawlessly with only collapsable sections and no page breaks. Great!

BUT the problem is I've followed the above instructions precisely but the Page Breaks cause entire collapsable sections to permanently disappear entirely, AND the Next/Save button does not function except to validate the form, which is unwanted.

I have to make the form savable, hence I'm on this guide page. (Users complained that their form lost all of their many form answers if they accidentally navigated away or pressed the wrong button).

Form opens with missing sections despite them all being visible. Pressing the first and only Next/Save button does not work, ie doesn't save. Attempting to revisit the page for editing also fails at: https://www.jotform.com/form.php?formID=20225407335?sid=chaseholden@gmail.com&mode=edit despite the first 2 sections having been saved by using the Page Break button.

I'm creating a form with multiple pages. I've created four 'form' pages, and one 'login' page.

Following the steps above, I can get everything to work for the first two pages (login and page 1), but when trying to create the email for subsequent pages, the option to insert 'E-mail' for recipient email isn't available – only fields on that particular form.

How can I create a form with more than two pages? (A single page form that I tested didn't save the input data).

I am wondering about the security of this. If the form contains sensitive information, could someone access the session by guessing who a respondent might be and entering jotform...?session=example@bigcompany.com? Also, if the form is embedded in my site, is it possible to link the user to my site rather than to jotform directly? Thanks.

Do you have an idea as to how many dropdown menus 'a large amount' is? I use quite a few because I need to ask people what their height and weight is - but I need to use metric and imperial, which means I have about 7 fields, of which half are hidden.

Is there a limit to how many text, drop downs, checks, and radio buttons you can have on the main form before it becomes too complicated to save and return to? Are their any restrictions or complications that can occur with a "heavy" form?

We are wanting to embed our checklists in to the Google Sites, we prefer our clients didn't have to enter their name & email address everytime before completing the form as it is an extra step - whilst necessary for jotform, unnecessary for user in this case as in they will be in their own portal site and will have signed in for that. Is there anything on the horizon to develop this method of Saving Forms to Continue Later?? I see other form builders can do it so guess it can be done. Would be good to know if on agenda for development???

I am planning to use this for internal field work, I noticed that if i complete the form once than go through the process again, it pops up the form i did previously, is there a way to allow one email address to access multiple variations of the same form?

I have created 2 forms.First form (http://www.jotform.com/?formID=31396271951357) and main form (http://www.jotform.com/?formID=31395192399364).Unfortunately Main form did not save my answer after I clicked Save and Finish the Form button.Can you tell me why?Thanks

I did my best to follow your instructions above, however, whenever I fill up the "first form" and go to main form link, the data from first form were NOT shown on the main form...I am really confused how to set it up properly.

This is my sample first form.http://form.jotform.me/form/40604171058447

Hi, created two forms and ran a test. Here's the link http://form.jotformpro.com/form/41275078362961

Can't seem to get inputs to save to the main form. As the administrator, I could see Submissions had all saved the inputted data, but when I went back to the form using the edit link as a survey user, the main form i had filled out looked blank when I returned to it. Why can't the survey user see what they put in previously like the admin can? Can you help me figure out what I did wrong? Thanks

okay, i got the main survey form to save data, but not uploaded forms. They were submitted, by do not show up as attached when user returns to continue work on their survey - it looks as if nothing had been attached.

How do you paste name and e-mail from the first form to the main form?Is there a way to use more than one condition? For example, go to the main form compatible with the e-mail and a month of the year. Of course, the first and main form have both questions.

What do you mean by ,matter of fact our session system will not be able to handle a large amount of records in drop down menus' - how many records can be handled and is this records per drop down or the total number of drop downs?

Okay I have the 2 different forms.http://form.jotform.us/form/42556154917157http://form.jotform.us/form/42548399847171

But for some reason, when previous applicants add ?session= and their email to the end of the form it doesn't pull from their previous forms.When I tested it before, it worked fine but now it is not working. What did I do wrong?

I have been trying to use this feature and it doesn't really work. I see that back in 2011 there was talk of the developers working on a Save button. Any word on if that will become a reality. I love my jotforms, but really need this capability. I don't want to redevelop my forms on a new platform. PLEASE HELP!!

I set up my first form and main form based on a unique ID (auto number). At first I thought it was working, but now, when I paste the link into a different browser, the information is not there. Please help.

Hi, so I have a form with multiple pages (i.e. page breaks) and did the save session method. It seems to work fine but it always start s from the first page. Is there a way to automatically skip to the uncompleted portion of the survey without the respondent having to click "next" until they get to the uncompleted part?

Hi, I've noticed a minor issue with this. On the demo of this, the percent complete progress bar doesn't show an accurate reading when you go back in using the edit url link that you are redirected to upon submission. It just says 0% complete at the top of every page. Any chance this can be fixed?

I followed all the steps and was able get a personalized link with my email, but none of my information saved in the second form. I also do not have a "Save" button on the second form. Just "Submit". Please help!

I have set up my form using your instructions, so that users get a unique link to get them back into their form. But it still seems to be browser/cookie dependent. I tried going through the form and even saving it, but when I went to a different browser all of the data did not show up. I had to use the original browser. Is there any other way around this?

This works fine until I have one person submitting more than one form. Is there a workaround for this?Background: I used Adobe Forms to collect tech specifications for shows in a festival. Sometimes one person puts on more than one show - they need to do more than one form.

Glad this is a feature, but it's too many steps, compared to the functionality that was built into FormsCentral: Check a box to enable the Save feature. Done. When someone clicked the "Save" link in a form, they got a pop-up asking for their e-mail address, and they received an e-mail with a link to the partially completed form.

stephen.robinson

(August 14, 2015 at 10:58 AM)

Agree with emucoe. Needs to be made simple!!!

hclc

(August 21, 2015 at 06:48 PM)

I have a question about security. If the session ID is an email address, couldn't I use someone else's email and find the data in the fields already entered?

Hello, is it possible to use the continue function for ENCRYPTED forms?

I have an encrypted form. It uses page breaks to create a session ID, and I am using the {email} as the session ID. When testing the survey as a user, I am able to use the front and back buttons and the fields are still populated with the right data. However, as soon as I click submit, the data is lost. I use the link with the session ID to return to the form, and the data is lost - all the fields are blank. This is true for the link on the thank you page and in the auto responder email I created. Is this just because my form is encrypted? Or is there a way around this?

Second, in the auto responder email sent to the survey respondent's email, I have it showing the respondent all of his/her responses. In that email, I am able to view responses for the first 2 pages of my survey, but the data for the last page is garbled (encrypted).

Thank you for your response to my initial question. I have followed the steps outlined above for creating multiple pages (page breaks) on my form to facilitate the save and continue...but it does not work when I follow the unique link. People mention a "Save and Quit" or "Save and Continue Later" option. Are these just text edits to the existing "next" button or is there some place where you have to assign the save feature to the "next" button?

I've followed the steps you have in your tutorial. The problem I am having is when using the link to return to the form, none of the work is saved, even though it is in my submissions table. I notice in your sample, the user get a url in the thank you of the main form and that url had a sessionID number. How do I get the session ID to pass in a url when the user submits the main form?

From a human interface design standpoint, this is just silly. I want an option of simply adding a "Save" link, and when the user clicks that, a popup window asks for their e-mail address and then e-mails them the link to continue.

I have created two forms ( http://shruthitest.webware.io/pages/jot) and it works fine.

My concern is how will we prompt the users to complete the form.Is there way to send an email to the user every time the he pauses. Also as a store owner how will I get know the form is now completely filled and not paused.

Note - I also enabled autofill so you have to switch browsers to see that the unique link is not working.

Cassie

(July 14, 2016 at 03:45 PM)

I'm having major issues with this. I'm hoping someone on here can help.

1. I did the two separate forms and followed the step by step instructions. I found out that if the form has a page break and none of the fields are required it will let the recipient go back in and change it one.

My problem is I have a major annual report that many business will use to fill this out and it may take them a few times to fill out the information. My other problem is I have may required fields.

The fields I have are calculations, matrixes, drop downs, check boxes, and conditions. Lots of conditions.

So, how do I make this work? They will need to get past the page block and the required fields to press submit to be able to reopen and get back into it to edit. I'm just not sure how to do it.

This works very well on the form I made except for the dynamic fields, nothing gets save there. Unfortunately those are the field that take a long time and need saving so user can finish later.the widget I used are the Matrix Dynamique, and Configurable list. If I could get those to work, It would be beyond awesome, with out it unfortunately the form and all the work to created is worthless, well other than the fact that this jofform site is the best thing I have ever found on the Internet ever!

Ok for some reason the next morning nothing saved, not even the non dynamic info. Not even the demo you guys put up works. The name field also I can't auto populate because it only fills in the First Name part with both the first and last names.

There's one problem here. When I auto populate the Name (first and last) on the follow up form, it takes the first and last name submitted in Form 1 and combines them in the First name box in form 2. I'm sure there's an easy fix I just don't know how to myself. Thanks.

Hi ThereI have followed the instructions at the top to link the 1 form to the other and that works however when they are submitted they are 2 seperate submissions. Is there a way to get these all on 1 email. My form is for a blood bike organisation and we have the following.form 1 - Rider information and job number from co-ordinatorform 2 - Collection note from hospital 1 which includes a signature and email back to collection point.form 3 - delivery note to destination hospital which includes signature & email back to delivery hospital (and ideally collection hospital).I tried having this on 1 form with the save later option but the signatures were not saving. And for legal reasons we need signatures.Can you help at all?

Please help... I have a form that I need to save progress. I have tried working through the walk-through but I am getting balled up somewhere. I seem to be going in circles. My goal is that you when filling the form which is long if you take a break you will not lose all progress.

Thank you for the step-by-step of this work around - very helpful! I'm wondering if there is any limit to how long the form is saved. Our form is an application that is open once a year for several months, until the following year. If the same applicant goes back into the application a year later, will their original responses still be accessible?

Would it be possible to get the correct code (or code structure) for having it prepopulate into the correct fields for first and last names? With the one you supply above, it puts both first and last in the first name field—I tried a bunch of different things using the instructions on the prepopulate page but none have worked.

I have completed this How to Save Forms and Continue Later modifications to the two required Forms and deployed Form 1 to my website: http://www.temptestsite.net/jot-form-test.

This is a Test site and the below forms are meant to test what I may accomplish for my client before I build the "Real" forms for use in the permanent site.

When testing, I am not able to get any entries in the Form to save after using the "Next/Page Break" button. After I have clicked on Next, closed the form and then return to Complete, any of the prior entered data is not there?

Everything is working except the pre-filled information is not saving when Form 2 is viewed again?

These are the two Forms -Form 1: https://form.jotform.com/63334772877165 & Form 2: https://form.jotform.com/63275744442156.